Home on the Range: UNL graduate Michael Forsberg combines geographical curiosity and a love for photography.

Teaching Geography with a Camera

By Kim Hachiya, Public Relations

As a freshman, Michael Forsberg thought he might major in pre-physical therapy. To fulfill a requirement, he signed up for a class in human geography, taught by David Wishart.

"From the very first day, what he had to say about spaces and places, ecology and their interwoven effect really touched me. I thought his ideas were really cool," Forsberg recalls. "So I decided to major in geography."

The next year, he joined the staff of the Outdoor Adventures group at the Campus Recreation center, where he led adventure-based tours canoeing, rafting, mountaineering and hiking in wilderness areas.

"So I had these two things going on," he said. " I had this geographical curiosity about the world, and I had this cool job taking people to really beautiful remote Western places."

While rafting on the Green River in Utah, Forsberg decided he wanted to find a way to better remember the scenery. He bought a cheap little 35 mm camera, and fell in love with photography.

That love affair led this self-taught professional to a career as a nature photographer, including a stint at Nebraskaland magazine and now as a free-lance photographer with a growing business selling images of the plains and its wildlife.

"Geography is a perspective, a way to look at things," he said. "I feel like I am teaching geography with my camera. I'm teaching about the natural world."

Forsberg's way of looking at things caught the attention of the U.S. Postal Service. March 8, Forsberg's photographic image of Nine-Mile Prairie, "October in the Tall Grass," makes its debut as the Postal Service's latest stamp in the American Scenes series.

Other stamps in the series have depicted the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls and Mount Rainier. And now, a grassy meadow in Nebraska.

It took the patient Forsberg seven days to get the shot, driving out each morning from his house in south central Lincoln to the prairie, owned by the University of Nebraska nine miles north of Lincoln (hence its name).

Because the grass is so tall, Forsberg knew the best image would occur if he could set his camera high off the ground. He dragged a step ladder to a spot he'd picked out because of its impressive sweep of the prairie. But each day, something was wrong. It was too cloudy. Or too windy. Or the light was bad. Or it rained. The seventh morning was so foggy, that he almost turned back. But foggy days sometimes yield riches. He drove on.

"I got there just as the sun came up and the fog was lifting," said the 1989 UNL graduate. "There was no wind and lots of dew, so the color was really, really rich.

"It's not rocket science. Most of photography is persistence and patience."

And passion for his subject.

Forsberg is unabashedly in love with the Great Plains and the world of nature. That love affair with the landscape and wild things fuels his intense desire to keep the natural world pristine, or at least around, for his children and his children's children to enjoy.

"Conservation is not rocket science, either," he said. "I'm really scared for my kids that the pictures Daddy is taking may be the only record left."

Forsberg's fears are well grounded. Experts say less than 2 percent of America's once-vast prairies remain.

"What we've got left is just fragments," he said. "I feel like I'm chasing ghosts."

"My goal is to build an appreciation for landscape and wildlife on the Great Plains. They are so often maligned and misunderstood. Plains landscapes are so subtle. You have to wait for light, for clouds, for weather, for color. The pace is so slow, then there's a big flurry of activity to capture that fleeting second of light at the end of the day. "But how do most people see Nebraska? From the Interstate, or from the air. And all they see is flat. But if they would get off the road a bit, they would see that Nebraska is one of the most diverse states in the entire country. There is so much there.

"And if you build an appreciation for the prairies you're more apt to want to preserve them, save them, restore then. So that's why I'll gladly lie in mud for two weeks to make people see the value of a bird."

Forsberg is not naïve about the reality of 21st Century land use. With a degree in geography from UNL, and a slew of graduate courses in federal land use policy on his resume, he knows that the development of the American West came at a price.

"I think people thought the west was so big, they had no idea it would get so full so fast," he said. "There was a lot of waste and destruction. We just need to deal with it now and try to preserve what's left."

He's pleased that the stamp will generate interest in prairies. The image, which can be seen at his website <www.michaelforsberg.com>, has grown in popularity since he took it in 1994. A company in Washington, D.C., hired by the Postal Service to find images for its series, found the photo, "October in the Tall Grass," on the site and contacted him in 2000.

"The image has gotten more popular over the years," he said.

That's good for the business and reputation this free-lance photographer is building.

"But what I'm really glad for is that it provides a tremendous opportunity to talk about prairies and to talk about beauty and the value of conservation."

The Ethics of Work: John Barbuto continues research for his Motivation Sources Inventory at UNL.

Understanding Different Motivations Can Help Workplace

By Sally Marek, IANR News

Different stokes for different folks seems to apply when it comes to motivating workers, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln researcher said.

John Barbuto, a leadership researcher in UNL's agriculture leadership, education and communication department, developed a test to uncover employees' sources of motivation. Understanding different people's primary motivation can create a more productive workplace, he said.

Barbuto developed the Motivation Sources Inventory at the University of Rhode Island in 1997 shortly before coming to Nebraska. It is now used nationwide, in more than 50 countries and in Barbuto's ongoing research.

People taking the inventory rank their level of agreement with a series of questions about preferences, needs and desires. Both self-scoring and nonself-scoring versions are available.

Barbuto said the inventory helped him to identify five different sources of motivation. No one is motivated exclusively by one source, Barbuto said; each motivation source exists is varying degrees in everyone.

Barbuto said his Nebraska research has consistently shown that nearly 40 percent of Nebraska agricultural workers are predominantly self-concept internally motivated. The hard work ethic and helping nature of Nebraskans is most likely a result.

This type of motivation is characterized by a desire to meet personal standards. Such employees seek the most difficult tasks, want to develop a range of skills and perform important tasks with little supervision or direction.

The dominance of self-concept internal workers in leadership and management positions of agricultural operations explains why working hard to produce quality results is considered the status quo in Nebraska, he said. However, this abundance of self-concept internal workers also may lead to conflict because these individuals often expect employees and co-workers to exhibit the same dedication and helping nature.

Supervisors can motivate self-concept internal type employees by assigning challenging work requiring expertise, creating opportunities to develop skills and not assigning menial or mundane tasks.

"It is important to spend extra time challenging self-concept internals. These workers want to stretch their limits," Barbuto said.

Nebraska's low unemployment and shortage of workers mean it's especially important to make the workplace as productive as possible, Barbuto said.

"An employer can use this information to know what buttons to push in their employees," he said.

Conversely, Barbuto said, employees who understand motivation can motivate their colleagues and their bosses.

The four other sources of motivation that Barbuto identified as influencing workers are: intrinsic process, instrumental, self-concept external and goal internalization.

Intrinsic process motivation is characterized by sheer enjoyment of work. An employee who is primarily motivated this way will easily be taken off a task that isn't enjoyed, will talk about how much a task is liked or disliked and perform a task poorly when it's not enjoyable. To motivate such employees, it helps to assign tasks they like best, let employees have fun at work and create an enjoyable workplace.

A concern for tangible incentives, such as money or extra vacation days, indicates instrumental motivation. Instrumentally motivated employees will expect compensation for extra work performed and talk about their own and others' salaries and the salaries of others.

For these employees, Barbuto said, make expectations clear. Explain what compensation they will receive for their efforts, create incentive-laden pay scales and develop non-monetary rewards to pursue.

Self-concept external motivation is distinguished by concern for reputation. Such employees constantly seek feedback, praise and recognition, and pay close attention to who receives credit when work has been completed. Praise these individuals publicly for their achievements, criticize them behind closed doors and assign them highly visible projects, he said.

Goal internalization motivation is based on a need to believe in the organization's cause. People with such primary motivation will comment on the operation's strategic focus, work hard when they feel the cause is good and live a professional life guided by a strict set of principles and values. To motivate these employees, communicate the organization's vision, be enthusiastic about achieving goals and explain how tasks help to reach goals.

It's important for employers to make concessions for all employees to create a productive workplace, Barbuto said. A workplace will include people with different goals and values. Understanding motivation can reduce conflict between these groups.

This research, he said, also can help those who work largely on their own, such as farmers. Theories of motivation can be used to encourage family and friends, and to deal with grain sellers and co-ops.

This research was conducted in cooperation with the NU Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources' Agricultural Research Division.

Three Finalists Interviewing for Extension Dean Post

By Molly Klocksin, IANR News

Three finalists seeking to head the Univer-sity of Nebraska's Cooperative Extension Division will be interviewed in Nebraska during March, said John Owens, vice chancellor of NU's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

The finalists and the dates of their Nebraska visits are:

o Carla G. Craycraft, director, Agricultural Communications Services, University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture, Lexington, Ky., March 14-16.

o Elbert C. Dickey, interim dean and director, University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension, Lincoln, March 28-30.

o Timothy P. Mack, assistant dean for Information Technology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and head of the Department of Entomology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va., March 19-21.

Craycraft joined Kentucky in 1981 as an assistant extension professor in its Department of Animal Sciences, and became an extension professor in its Department of Agricultural Communications in 1993.

Craycraft earned a doctorate in breeding and genetics and a master's in animal science, both from Oklahoma State University. She has a bachelor's in animal science from the University of Connecticut.

Dickey became NU Cooperative Extension's interim dean and director Oct. 1, 1999, following former Dean Ken Bolen's retirement. Bolen had held the position since 1990.

Dickey is a professor of biological systems engineering. He joined the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources faculty in 1978 with extension and research appointments in soil and water conservation and became associate extension dean in 1998. Previously, he was at the University of Illinois, where he earned bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in agricultural engineering.

Mack became assistant dean for Information Technology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech last year. He retains duties as head of Virginia Tech's Department of Entomology, which he has headed since 1994. Mack began his career in 1981 at Alabama's Auburn University as an assistant professor in the Department of Zoology/ Entomology and became a professor in 1993.

Mack holds a doctorate and a master's degree in entomology from Pennsylvania State University and a bachelor's in biology from Colgate University.

NU's extension dean heads a statewide program. Extension delivers research-based education programs and information in every county of the state. Extension staff are located at 83 county or multi-county offices as well as on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus and at research and extension centers at Scottsbluff, (Panhandle), North Platte (West Central), Norfolk (Northeast), Clay Center (South Central) and Lincoln (Southeast).

Cooperative Extension is a division of NU's IANR.